FE8 - No Mounts Low Turn Counts Run: Chapters 16 to 18

Channel:

MoogleBoss

Subscribers:

6,660

Published on July 21, 2015 2:12:12 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3ZC05GiOzg

Game:

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (2004)

Duration: 18:43

699 views

16

A challenge I left unfinished a little over a year ago, to which I recently returned in order to complete it - there was only so much left after all. You can check out the whole playlist here, showing the first fifteen chapters of the game (before Warping became a thing):

Challenge playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c26lYu02EA8IaBJcmStZg47

It's a mountless run, meaning I sacrifice what is possibly the most precious thing to a player attempting to clear the game at the lowest turn counts - mounted units with superior mobility, utility with canto and rescuedropping and with the game's best character (Marcus, Seth, Titania - you name it) being your mounted unit.

I had chapters 16/17 already recorded when I got back to it, and was just before map 18, which is actually one of my least favourite maps to do, even though it makes a refreshing difference in the midst of warpskip strats since chapter 16 is when you want to hit A staves and the relevant mag stats with all relevant units.

Chapter 16 - 1 turn

Before chapter 16, I promote Knoll to Summoner (better utility than Druid). This gives Knoll sufficient Con to rescue Artur to let him use the 3rd and final Warp necessary for the 1-turn strat to work. This can also be done by Assassin Colm (mine is still a Thief), but I was thinking that I would definitely use Knoll in chapter 18, the last map requiring some semblance of combat from my units, whereas I didn't think I would be tempted to employ Colm ever again, as useful as he may have been in the early maps of the game. This turned out to be right.

Anyway, in this map I just barely have enough units to execute the 1-turn warpskip, employing as many as 3 warp uses. First Moulder warps Eirika up (she needs to have good magic in order to actually warp her to the other side of the wall), and Artur, the guy with the fattest mag stat by far, warps Ross to a location where he can, having used the Boots from the desert map, target the boss with a 2-range attack and KO him with a crit.

Eirika still needs to seize, and this is the hardest part - Artur will get rescuechained by literally every unit deployed who wasn't involved in the warping (except for Gerik who destroys the Merc blocking the way, and Saleh who is still working on his staff rank for Rescue access later), after which Tethys will dance him to reach Eirika and warp her up to seize.

Chapter 17 - 1 turn.

Of all the 1-turn requirements, this is one of the easiest. You have two phases to attack Lyon, of which you may or may not use the player phase, and reaching Lyon doesn't require an absurd warp range in the first place. This is a good time to get Ross experience he wants to turn into a mean endgame boss-slayer, Gerik some sword rank for Audhulma, all while Saleh uses Hammerne on Warp to get that much closer to B rank staves.

Chapter 18 - 5 turns

The toughest of the endgame maps, since you can't just 1-turn it with Warp, but Warping is essential here anyway. You have so many leftover uses of the staff (even with using 1 Hammerne on Barrier early on) that you may as well facilitate an efficient clear of this unique chapter.

First of all, deployment slots are rather limited considering nothing would stop you from fielding anyone capable of smashing eggs, and anyone can do that pretty much. This is why perfect usable units like Colm (swordlock) and Gilliam (5 move and impossible to lift up) are left out.

I would say this 5-turn strat is moderately restrained, though there must be a few instances where specific characters do nothing to help rout the map, which namely can be reduced to killing enemies that will not willingly kill themselves on you. In some cases, this can be manipulated by having the Stone Gorgon suicide unto weakened Ross, whom she KOs assuming she connects with ~30 or so hit. The last couple of turns are rather straightforward when all the warping has been carried out, but I'm still forced to memorise all of my moves because Dozla and Garcia have very high chances of dying to the two spiders that spawn in the southeast part of the map. Anyone close to the Gorgons will be at some risk of dying, too.

Ephraim and Gerik get some decent and plentiful level-ups here, but they're not really needed to help slay the final boss, since one single character can accomplish that with the help of a dance. Still, look at those fancy high stats for the sake of stats!

As for the MVP of the map, how about that Phantom? Making omelettes with his axe, tanking a Gargoyle and even conveniently dying to lava to be respawned by Knoll on the last turn. I just had to give the dood the final kill on this map. He's the only controllable unit who can fly on this playthrough (I wasn't sure I could actually call Myrrh "infantry", though she's not riding anything per se), and being summoned lets him move the farthest of all my units. He's a swell guy.

Other Statistics